We must ban those deadly stiletto assault heels NOW! Well, that’s a different look at Snowden and the NSA … Medical marijuana. For our pets. (H/T. L) Hm. This is the first thing I’ve heard that makes me think a smartphone could be a great idea. (I’m sure there are other things; just none that grabbed me.) Double hm. What exactly is Governor Sandoval of Nevada up to? Might be worth the 15 seconds it takes, especially if it ticks off Bloomberg. While I disagree with her lumping us with “we,” whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has a point. (Heard on NPR…
Month: June 2013
He has had “a very comfortable life” that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. “I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” Twenty-nine. Prosperous. Successful. Living in paradise. And willing to risk it all for freedom. Willing to risk it all for an act that (dare I use the term?) is intensely…
Twenty open tabs in three browsers on two computers. I read and think about last week’s shocking-but-utterly-unsurprising revelations about NSA snoopery. A thousand thoughts run through my head but not a single word makes its way into electrons. No, it’s no surprise at all that a government agency that was created in secret and is still called “No Such Agency” now reigns so powerful — and will continue to dominate presidents and congresses, no matter who elects them or what letters they have after their names. It’s also no surprise that not a single MSM news source mentions the Fourth…
Um … Okay … Source for those who can’t see the embed. Weirdly well-done strange thing. Oldie but goodie. Fabulous sound track. H/T to DL.
“…and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Somehow, “everybody who uses Verizon” just doesn’t seem all that “particularly described,” does it? Especially when you have to assume every other phone company is obeying similar secret orders.
… from Freedom Outlaw, who runs the only interesting page on Facebook.* * There may be a few other Facebook pages that are useful — dog rescue sites, fundraising sites for victims of the state & such. But Freedom Outlaw is the only one I ever visit just because it’s so darned cool.
… is becoming Turkey’s Tienanmen “tank man.” (Click for larger image. You may have to click twice. Or go here.) Who is she, this lady dressed for a garden party? Does anybody know? I imagine her tossing an irreverent comment at the riot cops. Obviously, that’s the only thing she could be tossing — words of disrespect for Authoritah. Or who knows? Maybe they just didn’t think she said, “Hello” or “Good day” with proper deference. The second (upper right) image is the one becoming an icon. But damn, it’s the fourth one (lower right) that gets me; the cop…
Anybody who grew up in a dysfunctional family knows one of the cardinal rules: The person who mentions a problem is the person who caused the problem. Let some low-on-the-family-totem-pole person raise a destructive issue that’s hidden in plain sight and all hell breaks loose. No, the family doesn’t suddenly wake up and say, “OMG, you’re right. We have to do something about that!” Instead, everyone within earshot rounds on the poor sap who dared mention the family secret and the bullying begins: “Why are you always such a troublemaker?” “If you’d just learn to keep your mouth shut, everything…
It was sunny yesterday, O wonder of wonders. I spent the day painting the back porch. It’s a tiny porch, but has four different colors and a couple different wall textures and it kept my body occupied for hours. But my mind had better other things it wanted to do. —– I found myself thinking about Amy Fischer, the “Long Island Lolita” and her main squeeze with the perfect tabloid name, Joey Buttafuoco. Why the heck would I be there in the sunshine thinking about some long-eclipsed “crime of the century”? I have no idea. That’s so 1992. —– I…
Yesterday I sighed about what we might as well call the “self-surveillance state”* — the growing culture of cool-tech that seduces people into adopting (and paying for!) the very technology that the Big Brother state and Little Brother corporations use to spy on them. The first comment on that post came from David, who also sighed: “There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle … and the sort of societal shift that would include protecting privacy of any sort seems increasingly unlikely.” He nailed it on the genie and bottle. And we’re certainly undergoing a tech-driven societal shift toward…